Used to be a Superhero
by In Smithereens
Summary: Four years after the seventh book, Harry is in Sunnydale hunting a blonde vampire. Set during BTVS season seven. Reference to a past Drarry relationship. Canon Buffy pairings. Buffy-level violence, language and sexual content.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: I started writing this as a one-shot but kinda liked the idea of it going through the season seven arc. Feedback would be wonderful, just to give me ideas of what storylines would change in this situation. This is set four years after the last wizarding war, and two years after *something* happened to change Harry. I'm not going to do any romance (except the flash-backy kind) because given the circumstances I doubt Harry would want to be in a relationship, as for BTVS, the pairings are canon pairings, though I might make them realize their feelings a little earlier. Harry is a year older than the scoobies (not a teenager anymore, which scares me). The story deals with grief, looks at prejudices and contains Drarry loving. The most explicit sexual content will probably come out of Anya's mouth, though. (Sorry for the long A/N, but I felt that all needed to be said)  
A not-so-vague Disclaimer: I own neither the Buffyverse nor the Potterverse. I also don't own the title- It comes from the chorus of the Ani DiFranco song 'Superhero'.

The vampire he was hunting looked achingly familiar as he talked to a pretty brunette. Though he was older than Draco, older than Draco would ever be, his slicked-back platinum hair and the cocky smile that played across his lips was enough to send Harry back to the old days. He watched the doppelganger knock back another tumbler of whiskey and touch the girl's arm. He was talking to her and she was nodding coyly back at him. When they stood up to go Harry followed them, taking the stake from the inner pocket of his jacket and locking his jaw, psyching himself up for the kill- for the slay, he corrected himself, he wasn't a killer, no matter what the wizarding world had made him out to be.

He trailed them through the streets of the small town, noticing that although the air was filled with the feeling of coming war people seemed to be out in the masses, shopping, eating and laughing with each other. Usually seeing people like this depressed him, made him remember the times before it happened, even times before the war, but at that moment he was solely focussed on getting the vampire and he needed to find a place less crowded to do so. Finally they crossed into a residential street that was almost deserted, the residents probably all out with their loved ones. The vampire led the woman towards a house and the woman followed him. Harry waited a moment before he followed them and became aware of someone watching him. Looking around he saw a petite blonde girl he judged to be about his age watching the house. Was she another victim, one of the ones he had turned, or a disgruntled girlfriend? Harry tried to ignore her as he opened the door, wandlessly reciting the alohomora charm. He would only slay her if he caught her feeding, or if she got in the way.

This vampire was going to be the most important slay of his new life, the most famous and the most dangerous. He had almost lost hope when he had learned that the vampire had stopped leaving bodies a couple of years before, but in the past few weeks, the demon circles had begun to talk about 'the old Spike' being back, and Harry had mad his way into Sunnydale. He had heard other rumours, the more ridiculous being that he had fallen in love with a vampire slayer and now fought for the good side. Harry laughed bitterly thinking about that. There was no good side, there were no real heroes and every bad guy had once been a victim, however willingly he had submitted. As for the slayer rumour, he couldn't believe that people still believed in the myths, still wanted to scare each other and put a mask on the fact that there was more than one demon hunter in the world.

He walked through the house, trying to find them, before he heard a scream from the basement. He ran towards the noise, his fists clenched, and digging wooden splinters into his right palm. When he came to the basement he was met with a strange sight. The vampire had flung the corpse to the floor and, his lips still red from the blood, was talking to himself. Well, not to himself, more like to some invisible person standing in front of him. He seemed to be arguing and repeated the phrase "I don't remember." Before turning around, as if whatever he was talking to him had told him that he was being watched, seeing Harry he stepped back.

"Stay away, I'm not safe." He said. Eyeing the stake, he added. "I don't hurt humans anymore."  
"The corpse behind you seems to point in a different direction." Harry quipped as he raised the stake, preparing himself for a fight.  
"Did you kill her?" A new voice came from the top of the stairs and both Harry and Spike turned to them. Walking down was the petite blonde. Harry cursed himself for not hearing her approach before realising something strange. She was sad about it, she seemed scared of the vampire, no, not scared of the vampire, more scared of what he had done. She wasn't a vampire.  
"You can go now," she added, nodding to Harry.  
"You don't understand, he's not human." He told her, squaring his shoulders but not willing to fight in front of a girl who looked like Hermione.  
"I get it, he's a vampire. And you're what, a rogue demon hunter?" She said, rolling her eyes at him.  
"He doesn't have a soul. He killed a girl. I have to kill him."  
"Someone's really overestimating their own power," she said, watching the vampire as if she was anticipating him trying to escape. "And you haven't gotten the message; it's my job to do this." Harry raised his eyebrows.  
"Someone hired you to kill him?"

"She's the slayer," the vampire finally spoke. Harry laughed.  
"Great, another girl who took a folklore course and decided that she was the latest in a long line of human sacrifices."

"I don't have time to argue with you. Do you want to fight me, or do you want to listen?" The girl asked. Harry sighed; he wasn't going to kill a human. He nodded.  
"Spike's been… off lately. But he's with me." Harry couldn't stop himself from speaking.  
"He's a vampire, and you think you're a slayer… add it up."  
"He's a wizard," the vampire spoke again, staring at them as if he was trying not to look at the body. "He can just look inside." It was the girl's term to raise her eyebrows.  
"It looks like I'm not the only myth here." She said. "Go on, wave your wand or whatever."  
"If I do this, will you let me do my job?" He asked, taking his wand from the inner pocket of his jacket.  
"My job," Buffy muttered but nodded for him to continue.  
"_Anima visum_," he said, flicking his wand at the vampire's chest in a vertical motion. At first nothing happened and he gripped the stake again. Then a silver glow seemed to emanate from his chest. Harry took a sharp breath. What was he supposed to do to a killer with a soul? A killer who was obviously out of his mind. When he emerged from his thoughts he saw that the girl- was she the Slayer?- moving towards the vampire.  
"It's really there." She breathed, reaching out to touch the light, to touch the vampire. But just as her hand was about to meet his chest she drew it back sharply as if burned. She looked at the vampire with hurt in her eyes.  
"I know it doesn't make up for it." The vampire said, softly. It was now clear that there was something between them, that they both seemed to care intensely about each other, despite themselves. Harry couldn't help but judge them, realizing afterwards that he was wrong for doing so. He was just as bad as everyone back home. Everyone who made him…. He stopped himself from thinking about it and tried to push it to the back of his mind.  
"He was talking to himself before you came in." Harry addressed the girl. She smiled sadly.  
"He's kinda become known for it." She said, trying (and failing) to sound upbeat.

"What are we going to do with him?" He asked.  
"'We' aren't doing anything. I'm taking him away and you're going to go home, wizard or no wizard." She walked over to the corpse and began to bury it in the dirt floor of the basement, businesslike. Harry watched them silently, waiting for them to leave so he could solidify the ground, not wanting anyone to be able to dig up the body.  
"Thanks for not fighting me." The girl said when she had finished and she and the vampire were about to leave. He watched them walk up the stairs before he spoke again.

"Wait, I know that something's happening and I can help you, I want to help you." The girl smiled.  
"I guess we could use a wizard." She motioned for him to follow them.  
"I'm Buffy."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews, they made me walk around with an idiotic grin for a while. I'm not going to say what happened to Draco for quite a while, but it will probably become rather evident from Harry's reactions to things and his answers to questions.  
A not-so-vague Disclaimer: I own neither the Buffyverse nor the Potterverse. I also don't own the title- It comes from the chorus of the Ani DiFranco song 'Superhero'.

They walked through Sunnydale silently, Harry and the girl- Buffy flanking the vampire, who was staggering slightly, as if drunk. They came to a house on a suburban street and stopped.  
"I'll tell them that you need to stay with us." Buffy addressed Spike. As they walked through the threshold Harry paused, wanting to say something in thanks, even in a warning, but he couldn't get the words out. He had been out of contact with other humans for too long, he decided. They went straight to the basement where Buffy proceeded to shackle the vampire to the wall. Harry narrowed his eyes slightly before the vampire spoke.  
"They're not safe with me here. Not like this anyway." Harry nodded, he knew the feeling. The feeling that at any moment you might rip your closest friend's throats out.  
"Come on, I'll introduce you to the gang. And then we'll get another cot down here." Buffy smiled.  
"Oh, I'm staying at a hotel in town." Harry didn't want to impose, or to be more accurate, didn't want to live with complete strangers.  
"Everyone crashes here. And we keep funny hours. It'll be easier if you stay." He started to protest and tell them that he could apparate but decided against it. He would just have to get used to living with people again. With one last look at the vampire, Buffy led him upstairs.

There was a group of people sitting in the living room, three girls and a boy. They all looked at Harry in a curious but friendly way. The red-headed girl's eyes widened when she saw him.  
"This is…" Buffy trailed off, obviously annoyed that she didn't know his name.  
"I'm James. James Evans." He didn't want to risk using his real name, they may have been muggles but they all seemed to have some knowledge of magic.  
"And this is Xander, Willow, Anya and Dawn." Buffy gestured to the group. "James is a wizard." She smiled, as if she was showing him off. The boy and two of the girls (included the red-head) looked suitably impressed but Anya, the older of the dark-haired girls rolled her eyes.  
"You didn't go to Hogwarts, did you?" She asked. Harry nodded. "Does Albus still teach there?"

"Albus Dumbledore died a few years ago."  
"Oh, well, good." The group looked at her and she elaborated. "He banned me from working there in the seventies. My customer-base went way down."

"Anya used to be a vengeance demon." Xander, the boy, explained. "She's not one anymore," he said off Harry's look.  
"As much as this look down memory lane is both informative and worrying, we need to tell him about what's happening."  
"He gets to join the gang?" Xander said, mock-hurt. "I thought that I was the token guy."  
"Xander, we need all the help we can get." The red-head finally spoke. "And _James_" she stressed the name, aware that it wasn't his real one, "is a wizard, y'know, proper magic. Not scary black veiny magic."

"Is he powerful?" The younger girl, Dawn, asked.  
"He could cast a spell to see Spike's soul." Buffy answered.  
"It's really there?" The girl asked, looking very young. Buffy and Dawn shared a look, which ended in Buffy looking away.  
"And he was hunting vampires, so I figure that he has pretty good combat skills." Buffy added, trying to keep the focus on Harry and not Spike.  
"So he's got the muscles the mojo and Dawn already has a crush on him;" Xander started, Dawn blushed. "Why are we here?"  
"To provide much needed sarcasm," Anya answered.  
"Do you make jokes, James?" Xander asked, mock-serious again. Harry began to wonder if everything he said was mock-serious.  
"None of late." Harry answered.  
"Good. So you and Buffy will figure out how to smush this first thing and we'll mock you as you go."  
"What'll I do?" Dawn asked.  
"You can research." Xander said. The girl sighed.

"Great, glad to know that I get a glamorous job."  
"And me?" The red-head asked.  
"You're all perceptive-girl. And you can research with Dawn."

They spoke well into the night before Xander and Anya left and Willow and Dawn went to bed. Buffy and Harry were left in the living room, drinking the cocoa that Dawn had made earlier, aided by Harry doing multiplying and heating spells every time it started to run out or get cold.  
"Why didn't you fight me?" Buffy asked when the house was silent. Harry thought about it for a moment before speaking.  
"You're human. I don't kill humans."  
"Why are you so sure that you would win if you did?"  
"I could have used the killing curse. You'd have died before you got near me."  
"Killing curse?" Buffy's eyebrows knotted."  
"Two words and a wand movement. As long as you mean them you can kill in seconds." He was careful not to reveal the words. She seemed to think about what he said before speaking.  
"Why do you fight?" She asked. The words hung there before he answered.  
"I've always fought; I just couldn't do it in the wizarding world anymore."

"Did you lose someone?"  
"Multiple someones, from when I was a baby to a couple of years ago." He said. "And when the last person died, I couldn't stand living in that world anymore."  
"How'd she…" Buffy asked.  
"He was killed. Murdered." If Buffy was surprised by his sexuality she didn't seem to react except to smile.  
"Dawn's picked another unobtainable guy, then."

"And you? Why do you fight?"  
"I'm the Slayer, I have been since I was fifteen. It's my job."  
"Lose anyone?"  
"A few people," She smiled sadly. "But I can't quit, not while Faith's still…"  
"Faith?"  
"She's the other slayer." She explained. "I died for a few minutes and someone else was called. And she died and Faith was called."  
"Why isn't she here?" He knew from her look that it was a sore topic but he wanted to know.  
"She was dangerous, she killed people. And then she turned herself in. I guess she's hoping that with enough time in prison she'll be able to redeem herself."

"Like the vampire?"  
"Wow, another perceptive person. Spike was bad, and then he couldn't kill so he helped us."  
"And he loves you."  
"I guess… But we've both done things to each other… bad things. Things that aren't too easy to forgive."

"Do you love him?"  
"I care about him… I'm attracted to him. But we've both done too much."  
Harry didn't ask what she had done. Why her eyes clouded when she talked about the other slayer and why she had flinched when she was about to touch the vampire, Spike. He hoped that she would do the same and not question him too closely about his past.


End file.
